In a trend that is all-too-familiar these days, the 22 year veterans at GamePro have decided to stop producing both magazines and online content. GamePro was once at the forefront of the modern video gaming magazine and came up through the ranks of other popular gaming magazines like Electronic Gaming Monthly, who also had a period without production. Sadly, I feel as though we will continue to lose these 3rd party gaming publishers out there. I can't remember a time in my youth when I didn't constantly tear through issues of GamePro reading cover to cover. As someone who always loved some great gaming journalism its sad to see GamePro head the way of the dinosaur. I can speak for many of us here at Nerd Blerp, magazines like GamePro were part of our lives as kids, and young adults.

When Zelda games get released my life tends to stop for a moment. I have been playing Zelda games since I was a kid, and have embraced it as one of my favorite series in gaming. Many of we children of the 80s and 90s have an appreciation for Zelda and her legend that precedes even its significance. Zelda is not just a game, but an experience, a lineage, and for many of us a beautiful representation of our own childhoods. So when November 20th, rolled around I made sure to get to my local Gamestop early, and jump right into the new adventure!

From the first few moments of Zelda: Skyward Sword, I felt immediately familiar with the characters and the objectives. You wake up (like in all Zelda games), and have to do a bunch of town work before you can have your big day against the town bully. We've seen this in most Zelda games since Ocarina, and this is no different. However, while feeling familiar, there was definitely a feeling of adventure that I have not felt from a Zelda game in a long time. Something about this game was different, even from the opening minutes of gameplay. Wii Motion-Plus did not rear its new head for a little while, but once that opened up, it felt even more unfamiliar. This was not another swing and slash Zelda game like Twilight Princess. Skyward Sword was unique, and classic at the same time. Nintendo has been on a great tear recently, combining their classic franchises with new updated gameplay style and elements. Skyward Sword also benefits from this mentality. The beautiful water-colored graphics pop off the screen unlike anything else. Link looks like an unholy combination between Wind Waker and Twilight Princess, and Zelda has a unique Nordic appeal. While their movements and expressions still seem quite Japanese (even more so in this game), Skyward Sword feels like a game that is for everyone!

The gameplay in Zelda: Skyward Sword is what differentiates itself from other games in the series the most. Wii Motion plus has added a gigantic depth to sword-fighting and the one-on-one combat is wonderfully difficult. You can find yourself spending quite a bit of time learning just how to attack that skulltulla (even though you're going to get hit a lot). Also, fighting armed enemies is another test of skill and intelligence as you need to hit them at exactly the right time, with exactly the right slice or poke. Motion Plus also adds to Nintendo's ability to create new and unique puzzles that have not been seen in Zelda games. After the first few dungeons I have yet to come across a torch puzzle, and I'm quite thankful for that! The puzzles in Skyward Sword feel incredibly fresh and beautifully original for a series that has been known for falling in the same puzzle-solving pitfalls. Wii Motion Plus does make Skyward Sword feel a little sluggish, but I believe that slow feeling actually increases accuracy and has since felt more and more natural with each hour spent in game.

What I do not care for with Motion Plus is that flying still feels messy. In Skyward Sword the player flies around The Sky above, The Surface on a large bird called a Loftwing. While flying has replaced the lion boat from Wind Waker, I still feel like it's a bother. Flying, while easy to control, feels somewhat inaccurate. I may just need to spend more time with that mode and fine-tune my skills, but right now it feels like the weak point in the game for me.

The environment in Skyward Sword is quite fun on the other hand. The Sky and Skyloft sit above the clouds which lie above what we know as Hyrule, and the people of The Sky know as The Surface. It's clear that the surface is Hyrule by looking at the world map. Once in Hyrule, the player can figure out that this world is grossly underdeveloped from a storyline perspective. The environments in Hyrule are gorgeous, and prove that this is what the Wii should have been doing over the past six years. Hyrule feels like it's either a world struggling to survive, or something that is waiting to be born or reborn. Since Nintendo is purposely ambiguous with when their Zelda games take place (they LOVE when people fight over Zelda continuity), it's hard to place when Skyward Sword takes place....even if this game feels like it would be first story in the series. The world of Hyrule feels and looks like a combination of the Hyrule from Ocarina and the world of Twilight Princess. I also enjoy the sky element of Skyward Sword, as it makes me feel nostalgic for other gaming gems like Skies of Arcadia!

As far as gameplay goes, Zelda: Skyward Sword does NOT disappoint. It's classic Zelda wrapped up with strikingly new Zelda. The soundtrack even feels different from other titles, and the look is something completely unique, more storybook than cartoon. It's clear that Zelda: Skyward Sword is a master class on everything that Zelda has created. Nintendo played a giant game of trial and error with the Zelda series, and Skyward Sword is the finished product. It's hard to imagine with The Big N will do with this series in the future, because Skyward Sword is the pinnacle of Zelda innovation. I won't make any outrageous claims that say it's better than Ocarina or A Link to the Past, but it's definitely the best Zelda game to have been released in the past 10 years.

What I liked: Swordplay! Sense of adventure, and the feeling that this game is going to be LONG! I like the look and the characters, and that Link and Zelda have an actual relationship other than boy saves girl. The game is incredibly fleshed out and it just feels plain WONDERFUL!The game is also on the difficult side, which is nice!

What I didn't: Motion Plus is great in most circumstances, but I still don't care for the bird travelling. Also, the Motion Plus fighting does take its toll on the ol' wrist.

What I loved?: Gorons are back...and that rules!

After an extremely lengthy hiatus from productivity, I'm here to say that I've solved some puzzles of life and am back with a vengeance. I could also say that I longed to revisit this audience, but that would be an overt lie...JUST KIDDING, though I've been having too much fun beating the skittles out of Gotham's most infamous villains in Arkham City. It's good to be back, and to re-acquaint one another, here's a condensed list of some incredible game music that I feel is just gosh darn swell (in no particular order, except for the number one position since it's aural ecstasy):

I've been on a terrible retro kick lately. While I hate living in the past, I typically tend to be quite disrespectful when it comes to newer games, and my acquired taste for retro goodness generally outweighs my desire to play anything current. I think that old games may not have been better, but they did more with less. I may become a grumpy old man when I say this, but old games have a certain mystique that very few blockbusters today have been able to capture. I say this as a twenty-five year old gamer, who has been shooting fireballs and collecting rupees since he was barely old enough to talk. I grew up in the first real gaming generation, by my adolescence games had become a much more legitimized form of entertainment media. So what happens when games become cool we forget about the last 30 years of games, and push out Vanilla Shooter after Vanilla Shooter? While this has been a growing trend over the past few years, the surge of new, simple games has taken control of our market. I'm thinking that retro games ARE making a comeback, and the love for 2D, turn-based, or shooters (real shooters not FPS) are finding their places in more homes and on more phones. I'm not just talking about remakes and rehashes of old games (though that is quite common), I mean a taste for the retro in our new games.

New York Comic Con was this past weekend. The event has gotten bigger and bigger each year I have attended, and there is an ever-growing focus on my favorite pastime, gaming. Each year I try my hardest to get my hands on the newest and greatest in terms of video games. I typically don't see games for the first time at Comic Con but it's a nice touch to get your hands on the biggest games of fall a few weeks early. When I got to NYCC this year there was one booth I had to hit immediately, the Nintendo Booth. Nintendo may not have the biggest lineup for the Fall of 2011 but there are some heavy hitting games that we can expect on both our Wiis and 3DSs. I will say that I was pleasantly surprised with most of the Nintendo lineup, and I'm excited for the next few weeks. I got my hands on Zelda, Mario 3D Land, Mario Kart, Pokemon Rumble Blast, and Kirby's Return To Dreamland.